


it's just one of those things (you'll have to get it over it)

by VolxdoSioda



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Princes bound by tragedy, Ravus chooses 'help' rather than 'hinder', and the world spirals from there, made into Kings by tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 19:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17351291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Ravus knows the tragedies locked beneath Noctis' skin. Secrets he will never tell his friends. Pain that will make him into a mess, if not kept in line.Ravus has been down that road before. He knows how it goes. He's tired of the Gods, of the Prophecy.If they are to burn, it will be because they did not fight hard enough, not because they gave up.(In the aftermath of Lucis' fall, something changes between them.)





	it's just one of those things (you'll have to get it over it)

In the aftermath of Lucis' fall, something changes between them.

Maybe it's the fact that Noctis is as powerless as Ravus was, once upon a time. And he looks it too - powerless and tired and scared. He hides it well, but Ravus knows what it looks like, and so he sees through the mask of bravado Noctis puts on day after day. 

Nobody else in the retinue does, though.

They seem to take the bravado at face value; perhaps they assume Noctis has done his mourning already, and has settled into his goal firmly, rather than merely using it as a survival tactic to keep his head on a little longer. That he's not terrified sick, not fighting nightmares and awake almost every hour of the day. It's starting to affect him on the battlefield; his actions are more sluggish, his reaction time less present.

If it keeps on like this, Noctis will follow his father into oblivion, and the Prophecy will fail. Luna would be left alone, but she would mourn Noctis, want to bring him back. And the Gods would not let him rest so easily. Ravus stopped putting stock in Gods when his mother died to a bastard's blade. 

Something needs to change. And Ravus knows that out of all of them, he has the best outsider's perspective on this matter. And he knows what true grief - losing everything in one fell swoop - feels like. He was a Prince once too. He knows that pain.

Once, he might have loathed Noctis. But it's hard to hate someone that looks so tired, so worn. 

So ready to die.

Despite all else, they're still guests within the Fenestala manor. Gladio had wanted to stay in the Henge for the night, pride still smarting from Ravus' earlier assault. But Ignis and Prompto trusted him enough to stand by his vow of sanctuary, and so it was into the manor they went, into the guest bedrooms where few people stayed anymore.

 And if Ravus puts Noctis in the bedroom beside his own, it is a coincidence.

Despite their distrust, it's clear the party is weary; it takes no time for everyone to fall asleep, save Ravus and Noctis. Ravus hears Noctis's door open, and keeps the lights in the kitchen off. In the darkness, he sits by an open window, moonlight showing him the grounds below. There's a steaming cup of tea in his hands, and another sitting across from him, in front of the empty seat.

He hears Noctis pad down the steps of the manor, and stop in front of the kitchen. Ravus keeps his face turned to the grounds outside, and for a moment, he thinks Noctis will stand there forever.

But then there is a heavy sigh, a sigh Ravus remembers himself making a thousand little times when he was smaller, and the footsteps move into the kitchen.

"You've always known, haven't you?" Noctis asks, and takes the seat set for him. He's not going to pretend, it seems. He knows he's been caught neatly, and he knows those masks will not work here. The darkness is a blessing for him - and it is one of the few Ravus will grant him. "Ever since we met that first time in the Imperial Base. You saw it."

Ravus takes a sip of his tea, and keeps his eyes on the outside world. "When one has lived the same tragedy, it's easy to know what to look for. Kingdom, crown, and family gone in a day. All but your retainers. A moment of brief happiness, eclipsed by a tragedy so great you feel you might never rise from it." He allows himself a glance at Noctis; the young King is staring into his tea like it holds the answers of the universe. "But," Ravus says. "You  _will_ rise from this, Noctis. It will hurt, but you will do it."

"I know. Luna is counting on me. I won't dishonor her, if that's what you're worried about."

Fool boy. "That is not what I mean."

Noctis lifts his head. "Then--"

"Luna is capable of taking care of herself. This wish to awaken the Gods, to bring about Providence, to follow the script, is her desire alone. But she will listen if you speak to her. If you seek another path, or even a mere pause in your journey to heal. She is not unreasonable. Nor am I." He pauses to take a sip. "Or have you forgotten that I too was once a Prince?"

He gives Noctis time to digest that. The grounds are quiet, the fireflies dancing around the few remaining syllablossoms on the ground. It's a beautiful, if bittersweet sight that always makes Ravus' heart tighten in his chest.

"How did you survive it?" Noctis speaks at last, in a voice so hushed it hardly seems there at all. "The grief. Getting up, pushing onward, when everything felt so raw?"

"I did not have a choice," Ravus says, and means it. "An unpleasant truth, but neither do you. And much like myself, time is not on your side." He makes a choice now, and looks Noctis dead in the eyes. "There are a thousand ways this could have gone, Prince Noctis. I could have retained my hatred, my loathing of you and let the world burn. But I am tired of death, tired of watching my loved ones be swept away under a rug called 'prophecy'. If the world must burn, it will be because in the end we were not strong enough to hold back what must come. Not because we so willingly gave up. That's why you are here, instead of at some backwater motel stationed in Gralea."

"You're going to help us?"

Ravus shakes his head. "Not them. They don't need it. I'm going to help  _you."_

Noctis still doesn't seem to grasp it. "Why?"

"Because as one former Prince to another, I have felt the tragedies you have felt, and I know the pain you suffer. But I also know the methods of survival, of honing yourself past your limits. You will need to know how to push on, even when the world feels like it will not stop cutting you down. You must learn to rise even when your body is telling you to stay down. And always you must remember what is on the line besides yourself."

Noctis scoffs. "I've already got the last one down. Gladio, Ignis, Prompto... they're my world. If anything were to happen to them..."

 _Yes,_ Ravus thinks, and feels a kinship here too, at the quietly pained expression on Noctis' pale face.  _Perhaps you have learned that lesson a little too well._

"One less for me to teach, then. But I would see you alive and whole, Prince Noctis, if not healthy enough to fight what comes. Ardyn is not idle, and the Emperor will not be either. If you go to Gralea, you will  _die._ "

"But if we stay here--"

"They will not find you."

"How can you be so certain?"

Ravus feels a cold smile curl his lips, and for the first time in a very long while, lets the barrier around his magic drop. 

Noctis' eyes widen. The Crystal's magic is like a well of power, taken in buckets and passed down through their connection. Ravus' magic feels like waterfall syphoned through thin tubes, all connected in a spiderweb across the grounds. He's strong. As strong as any Lucis Caelum.

"Because," Ravus says, and in the darkness his eyes seem to  _glow._ "I will not allow it."

Noctis feels his throat tighten.  _King,_ he thinks.  _You're a King in all but name._ "Oh."

Ravus' smile melts a little at the edges. "No need to be afraid. I'm hardly taking aim at  _you._  But now you understand - within these walls, without Lunafreya around to soften me, there is very little that will happen that I do not control or allow. They will not find you, because they will be too busy looking in other areas. I will tell them I saw you getting on the train, and I will tell Highwind to report the same, and I will 'overhear' several passengers discussing you going to Gralea. They will hunt, and not find, and by the time they do think to come back to me--"

"We'll be long gone."

"Just so."

He doesn't look quite so wilted anymore. He's sitting up a little straighter, even if the strain is still around his eyes and at the edges of his mouth. But there's a tiny ember there, the smallest spirit still left to coax back from the brink. At Ravus' hand, there will be kindling to add to feed that tiny flame, and by his methods Noctis will burn again, whole and unmarred, furious in his suffering and unrivaled in his tragedy.

The world will have it's Chosen King, when Ravus pulls him at last from the forge. But they have to get there, first.

"Do you accept my help then,  Prince Noctis? And do be aware... I am not an  _easy_ taskmaster. You think your little spars with Gladiolus are difficult? I expect to see results. And I will drill you until I see them, even if it takes me a thousand days and a thousand nights. We have time."

Noctis nibbles on his lower lip, biting it between teeth and rolling it back. "What if I can't learn what you want me to?"

"It's not a matter of  _can't,_ anymore, Noctis. It's a matter of  _you will or you will die._ So?"

"You're going to get impatient. My body--"

"I know your limits. I know your scars. We have time." He holds out his hand - the metal one that gleams with his magic. Noctis will only be offered the human one when he deserves it. "Well, Prince Noctis?"

Noctis holds his gaze for a heartbeat, and then bows his head, and offers out his hand to clasp the metal. His skin feels fever-hot, his magic little more than a faint shadow of itself. "Treat me well, Majesty."

"Oh, of _that,_  you can be certain."


End file.
